We all need to USE OUR IMAGINATIONS MORE—so our stories will be imaginative and creative! On DOT DAY, September 15th every year, that’s exactly what we are reminded to do: BOOST OUR IMAGINATIONS! Dot Day was inspired by Peter H. Reynold’s book, The Dot.

Albert Einstein agreed . . .

I agree! To boost our imaginations, we need to use them more, warm them up, get them revved. In the video above (by all means, show it to your students), I show you imaginative ways I used my “dot”—a red ball . . .

as a heavy earring, a wild steering wheel, a bad-cold-in-my-nose, a pillow that gives me red dreams, a giant period at the end of giant’s giant sentence. Then I challenge you to do imaginative brainstorming for a few minutes every day. Use it so you won’t lose it!

This handout gives ideas for imaginative brainstorming. These ideas help to make IMAGINATION MORE VISIBLE. Have a discussion with students about how they came up with their ideas. Which ideas seemed the most creative and why? By using their imaginations with these short imaginative brainstorming activities, you’ll be boosting your students’ imaginative skills, which will hopefully then translate into having them be MORE CREATIVE when they write their own STORIES!

COMMENTS CHALLENGEAdd to the Imaginative Brainstorming Ideas. What are some other ideas/lists you can use to challenge your students to use their imaginations? Please share for other teachers to add to their teaching toolbox. Thanks!